CHAPTER 3

"Hey guys! So where's our birthday girl?"

Speedy and Beastboy barely glanced up from their videogame as Starfire ran over enveloping each in a hug. "Friends! You have come to celebrate Friend Raven's birthday of eighteen! This shall be such a glorious occasion!"

"No clue, I haven't seen her all morning," replied Cyborg walking over to the group. "Then again I haven't seen Robin either."

"She walked in wearing Robin's t-shirt this morning to get breakfast for the two of them. That was at about ten this morning." Terra, who was sitting on the couch next to Beastboy, turned around slightly so she could see. "Hey guys!" There was a chorus of hellos in return.

"So when'd the birds get together?" asked Bee, standing next to Cyborg.

"Last night," replied Terra.

"We haven't asked how she knows since the picture says it was midnight," said Speedy rolling his eyes. "Sure the t-shirt was a give away, but having a picture that was taken at midnight?"

"Hey! I couldn't sleep! I was coming down for food! I just happened to have my camera phone with me," replied Terra, crossing her arms.

"Well why don't we stop bickering about pictures and get the party set up." Bee said it more as an order than a question. Once everyone was underway and getting stuff together she turned to Cyborg. "Any luck?"

He shook his head. "Nothing yet, but she's definitely not human like Jinx said. I'm not sure what to look for next; I've done all the usual stuff and extra. I was going to ask Raven, but it's her birthday so…"

Bee nodded. "It's supposed to be happy, why is there always something overshadowing us somehow?"

"Just our bad luck," he replied.

"Happy Birthday dear Raven, Happy Birthday to you!" sang the assembled group of Titans, the originals and East. "Blow out your candles!" exclaimed Beastboy.

Raven was grinning from ear to ear, an extremely rare sight that everyone treasured. She took a deep breath and blew out the eighteen candles on the chocolate cake, everyone cheered.

Cake was quickly passed around presents unwrapped. There was an assortment of books and other trinkets.

Once everyone had left the roof, Robin quickly caught up with Raven outside her door. She let herself be pulled into him from behind. "You get your real birthday present later," he said softly into her ear, his breath tickling her.

"You know," she said, her voice wry with amusement, "you'd think you had planned all this."

"Well I did give you fair warning…" he said, his voice laughing.

"That was you?" she exclaimed. "Since when could you make dream what you wanted? How long have you-" Raven let out a shriek of surprise as Robin ran his hand across the ticklish part of her stomach.

"Now, now," he said tauntingly into her ear. "We wouldn't want the whole tower hearing us would you?"

"For an Angel, you're incredibly evil," she said, trying to hold back the moan that threatened to break free as Robin ran a hand down her side.

"I'll take that as a compliment my little Demon lover," he replied, gently biting her earlobe. He had found out how much this affected her last night… He laughed softly as he got the same deep moan as last night. "And we have a pool to get to before they come looking."

Raven looked at him annoyed. "Evil little Angel you are."

He laughed as he turned walking away. Raven smiled in satisfaction as she heard the yelp of pain as she closed her door.

"What happened to you?"

"I don't want to talk about it," replied the limping Boy Wonder to Speedy. "Where's Raven?"

Beastboy shrugged from his place in the water. "Dunno; she's not up here."

Robin shrugged, knowing that she was sill in her room, now that he had bothered to 'look' through the tower for her. Being as high up as he was had its perks, though he rarely used any of them.

He looked around noticing that Cyborg and Bee weren't back up yet. Starfire was wearing one of her many purple bikinis, Terra was in a yellow one and Jinx a pink one. Beastboy was wearing black swim trunks, Speedy's were red, Aqualad's were dark blue and he was in black.

Robin knew Raven had arrived before she even spoke. Beastboy almost drowned (and he was a shark at the time), Speedy's jaw fell to the fourth floor (they were on the roof, approximately the tenth), Kid Flash (who was running after Jinx for some reason Robin didn't want to know) stopped dead and fell over himself and Aqualad fainted. Terra shrugged, threw a rock at Beastboy and went back to sunbathing, Starfire started using the words "Joyous", "Happy", "Wonderful" and "Beautiful" every five seconds and Jinx nearly fell off the roof laughing at Kid Flash and then grew wide eyed in surprise. "Did I miss anything?" came Raven's voice from behind him.

"Nope not a thing," replied Robin trying not to grin to much as he turned around. He easily took in the dark blue string bikini, his eyes traveling her curves. "I liked your outfit this morning better."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, birthday suit only comes out for really special occasions."

"Oh, so the breaking of one of the biggest rules in all history warrants it?" he responded with a derisive snort of laughter.

"Well so far…"

"Hey! What's that mean!"

Terra coughed. "While I'm sure we're all so interested in your sex lives and breaking the rules of the universe, I think we're supposed to be having some sort of race?" The accused just blinked. "Alright then. 4 laps, whoever gets first…well they get first. And anybody who wants to wait for Cy and Bee?…That's what I thought. And Aqualad, Flash and BB, sorry but it's not fair if you race."

Aqualad and Flash shrugged, perfectly happy to judge. Beastboy whined. "Aw…But Terra…I promise I won't transform."

"You said that last time. And the time before that. And every time we've let you in the time that I've been here in the past year." Beastboy pouted. Terra relented, as usual. She still had no immunity to the kitty or the puppy eyes.

Once everyone was in the water and the lanes had been set up, the sky suddenly started to darken. "Aww man," groaned Beastboy and Kid Flash at the same time.

"But it's not supposed to rain today, not a single green thing on the radar thingy," said Terra.

"It's not a rain cloud," said Robin looking up. "It's an eclipse. But there's not supposed to be an eclipse until…Raven?"

By this time the sun was completely blocked out, leaving them all in darkness. Raven was staring up at where the sun used to be in horror. "No, there's another. I can't be the oldest. I can't, I can't be the oldest…"

"Raven what's…" Robin stopped short as they all stared in horror.

Raven fell to her knees clutching at her head, her nails digging in. She let out an unearthly scream, her wings bursting forth as a strong wind blew up. Red lines flew down and around her body, marking out the signs of Scath, but also tracing her wings.

Robin had a single thought running through his head. I need to get to her. He started to move only to be caught by the arm. "Let me go!"

"No! You can't touch her!"

"I need to get to her!" He yelled, not even bothering to look at whoever was holding his arm. Something in the back of his mind told him that he was a demon, but the need to get to Raven overrode it. Somehow he pulled his arm away from the strong grip, his instincts taking over as his wings burst forth, and even in the semi-darkness, they were no longer white